Rockridge Social Studies

Create a Diverse Bibliography! 

 

By grade 11 and 12, a student's essay should contain a comprehensive list of sources (in your bibliography or Works Cited). This demonstrates to the reader that your material can be trusted. It is highly recommended that you use,

 

• at least 3 books. Books provide the detail and analysis that websites cannot often do. While books may be more intimidating and harder work, they are still the better option. 

• at least 1 journal article. Use electronic databases from home to get scholarly journals. You might need the password: "rossstudents"

• Consider using magazine and newspaper articles as well to create a diverse bibliography. 

 

 

 

 

Do not rely heavily on websites, especially Wikipedia. Anyone can contribute to Wikipedia and as a result there is no way of knowing the accuracy of the information. Instead, reputable sites like firstworldwar.com are more reliable. 

 

The great thing about the internet is that a great deal of information is at your fingertips. The down side, there is too much information at your fingertips. How do you know if the web page that you are looking at is credible, that the author of the page is an expert on your chosen topic? 

 

"Do not soley rely on Wikipedia"

 

The challenge today is not finding information, it is sorting and filtering through it. Be very careful about your chosen source. For example, in past years, students have unknowingly used marxist, communist websites to help write the majority of their essay. This is unacceptable and potentially dangerous because students may assume that that website's opinions and beliefs are within the accepted norms, and not on the fringes.

 

A comprehensive bibliography or works cited means that you have demonstrated thorough research. You have selected some books, magazines, maybe academic journal articles, newspaper articles, some credible websites (i.e. firstworldwar.com), and so on. 

 

 

Are Your Websites Reliable?

 

Checkpoint #1: Authority

 

• Is it clear who is sponsoring the page?

• Is there a link to a section describing the purpose of the sponsoring group?

• Is there a phone number or address to verify the agency or sponsor?

• Is the author clearly named, along with his or her qualifications?

 

Checkpoint #2: Accuracy

 

• Are the sources for factual information clearly listed so they can be checked in another source?

• Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and printing errors? (not only does this indicate a lack of quality control, but it can also lead to misinformation)

 

Checkpoint #3: Objectivity

 

• Is the information provided as a public service?

• Is the information free of advertising?

• If there is any advertising on the page, is it clearly separated from the informational content?

 

Checkpoint #4: Currency

 

• Do dates appear on the page to indicate:

  • when it was first written?

  • when the page was first placed on the web?

  • when the page was last revised?

• If the material is presented in graphs and charts, are there notes indicating when and where the data were gathered?

• Is the page presented as a completed work (not "under construction")?

 

 

Adapted from Marsha Tate, "Teaching Critical Evaluation Skills for World Wide Web Resources," Computers in Libraries, November/December 1996, pp. 49-55.